On the 9th of August, 1945, an all-Christian B-29 bomber crew, took off from Tinian Island in the South Pacific, with the blessings of its Catholic and Protestant chaplains. In the plane’s hold was the second of the only two nuclear bombs to ever be used against human targets in wartime. The primary target, Kokura, Japan, was clouded over, so the plane, named Bock’s Car, headed for the secondary target, Nagasaki.

St. Mary’s Cathedral, located in Nagasaki City’s Urakami River district, was a massive structure and a landmark easily visible from 31,000 feet above. The cathedral was one of the landmarks on which the Bock’s Car’s bombardier had been briefed for weeks before the mission. The cathedral was briefly seen through a break in the clouds, and the drop was ordered. The bomb exploded in a searing fireball as hot as the sun 500 meters above the church.

The legendary Urakami Cathedral was Ground Zero for the Nagasaki bomb on August 9, 1945

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's recent tour in Africa was meant to be a game changer, not only in terms of Russia's relations with the continent, but in the global power struggle involving the US, Europe, China, India, Turkey and others.

We live in an age of division. As the briefest glance at news media shows, contemporary universities are so often centers of differences, contradictions, and clashes between knowledge and ignorance off- and on-campus. One revealing site of combat is the false opposition of the faculty and the—to faculty and academic administration—second-class “professionals” in departments of student affairs and student life. This dichotomy, and its underlying both real and imaginary conflicts, critically parallels those between “learning and earning,” humanities’ core curriculum and “great books” vs. STEM and business education, curriculum vs. extracurriculum, and on-campus vs. off-campus life.

In this essay, as a retired humanities professor who taught for almost half a century at three public universities in large cities, and who lives in my city’s University District, I propose to seize on the strengths of both sides of what I see as a fallacious and harmful dichotomy. I seek to bring them closer together in the interests of undergraduate, graduate, and professional students, the suffering health of our universities, the advancement of young adults, and the needs of our nation.

Saturday, August 6, 2022, 1:00 – 2:00 PM
Celebrate the 57th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act on August 6th by standing up for democracy!  

Check-in and brunch begin at 10:30 am at the Sheraton in Capitol Square. The program will begin promptly at 11:00 am with a training and voter engagement resource give-away. We will then march to the Statehouse for the rally at 1 pm. 

This event is co-sponsored by Ohio Organizing Collaborative, NAACP Ohio Conference, APRI of Ohio, Ohio Unity Coalition, the Amos Project, the Ohio State Baptist Convention, our national partner Faith in Action, and our new co-sponsor The Ohio Legislative Black Caucus Foundation.  Join us to uplift Black and brown voices and fight for fair, free, and equitable elections. All Ohioans deserve to have their voices heard and their votes to matter! For questions, support with transportation, or other accessibility needs, please contact us at info@ohorganizing.org.